Dangerous game being played by Jumbo

WvA should have gone for it on the penultimate lap

Heckuva move. I didn't know he was riding but is that Joe D in the group?

And Pog delivers a reminder about why he’s the best rider in world.

Impressed with WvA to get there at all. Big head drop on that climb then hung very tough. Impressive.

What race are you referring to? I live outside DC and don't know anything about it.

Googling now!

Montreal

I am just posting this to get you guys to come visit Montreal

https://youtube.com/shorts/7RaAlVrI_OA

This is the base of the 8% climb to the top of Mont-Royal. You get to be this close 18x. Where else do you get this ?

I did the triple today too.

I just got home from a bikepacking trip gone awry. Slipped in a storm walking into a store in my shoes and cleats and managed a small quad tear. It was nice for a few weeks. The real world is also nice again too.

I ran that every day for a week maybe 10 years ago. I was at the Hotel Omni Mont-Royal at the base right around McGill University if memory serves right. I loved that city in the summer.

We are visiting next summer. The wife is excited about native French speaking provinces on this side of the pond, especially since the little lady of the house is speaking it so well.

I had my wedding reception at the Omni.

I have a place on Mt-Royal and it's beautiful. It's hard to pick running or riding. If you notice on the video I am on the other side of the barriers. There is a network of trails through the forest on the mountain to bypass all the crowd control.

If you visit, we'll have to ride Camilien Houde a few times. These guys did it 18x. I am toast after 6.

**Spoilers** 2022 Masters Cycling Thread

:)

Chapeau ;)

10.0

You can just make out me and my daughter in the background in that footage! Seemed like the security guard posted right around where you were was having a rough time trying to stop people from wandering out of the woods onto the course, it was quite comical at times.

We got there about 1:15 or so, watched a lap from the finish area. The "fan zone" was a waste of time, not really much going on there. My 7 year old was hot and grumpy at that point so she and my wife stayed by the finish and I took the other two kids up to the climb to watch a few laps. Something that doesn't come across on TV is how absolutely toasted the dudes who get dropped from the break are, just beet red, drenched in sweat, grimacing, you could tell they had no more to give. Seemed like every lap there was another guy off the back, grinding away in no man's land looking miserable.

We made our way back down to the finish with maybe 3 laps to go. It was already super busy around the actual finish line and in front of the screens, so we posted up at about the 200m to go mark, right on the barriers. Ended up broing down with some south american dudes who were sharing their cooler full of beer. It was weird not knowing the race situation at the end but then when we saw the lead group come by it was obvious Wout and Tadej were there, but couldn't tell who the other guys were. Gaudu attacked right before they got to us and Pog et al in hot pursuit. We couldn't see the actual finish but could tell Gaudu had been passed. We were right in front of the UAE tent though so when they erupted in cheers we knew what that meant.

Some observations:
- Who needs tramadol when the park next to the race venue hosts a weekly drum circle that results in massive clouds of pot smoke wafting across the venue throughout the entire duration of the race?
- Having kids with you is a great way to get bottles. The various soigneurs were handing out bottles towards the end of the race and always prioritized kids. It was way easier/better than trying to scavenge discarded bottles on course, not the least of which was because the bottles we got were full (some with water, some with calories/electrolyte drink). We got a few bottles from Trek, a few from TotalEnergies, and one commemorative GPMontreal one.
- On that note, whatever Total has in their drinks is gross, and whatever Trek has in theirs is delicious.
- My wife was amused when Peto abandoned and dropped his bike at the team tent... apparently it was like Beatlemania with grown men getting giddy/on the verge of tears screaming his name and hoping he'd come over for an autograph.

All in all it was a fun experience. The kids all enjoyed it (though my 7 year old complained that she much prefered to watch the races on TV and was also upset that Wout didn't win - the other two were rooting for Pogacar so left satisfied) and my wife (who doesn't care about cycling at all) said she had fun too. It's pretty likely we'll do it again next year.

I remember noticing that from watching the ToC on Mt. Baldy. Stragglers barely going fast enough to keep the bike upright, paperboying, etc. Slightly comforting to know all wrecked cyclists reach about the same place, some just take a lot longer to get there, and go a lot faster getting there.

Wonderful. Thanks for the write up, though the bolded part is umm, interesting.

Also, what did you guys get for food afterwards?

Montreal is such an interesting place, and quite a bit of the town has such an Old World feel to it. I prefer that to what we have in most of the U.S. cities.

Agreed. Almost no places in North America have that feeling save for a few places. Montreal certainly has bits that are like that. A good portion of NA feels and is built in a way that is meant to be destroyed and rebuilt in a short time span. For all I love about it here, I dislike that tremendously.

From what I can tell Trek uses Enervit in their bottles and Total uses Ergysport. The Trek bottle tasted good and was nice and subtle, the Total bottle seemed much saltier but also with this weird fruity aftertaste (Papaya? Passion fruit? hard to tell but it was gross). I would have no problem downing a bottle of Trek's nutrition but it would be pretty grim to have to down Total's. Maybe that's why Peto abandoned.

Sadly, because we had kids with us, we just did St. Hubert's (chain of chicken restaurants, not sure if there's really an American equivalent). Tons of amazing restaurants though (my wife and I get down to Montreal occasionally and it would be fair to call us foodies).

I find Quebec City gives more of the European vibe than Montreal as the old town is a walled city with the narrow streets/alleys/cobbles that run in all directions. Montreal's old town is organized in a grid and is a mix of old and not-so-old, it has its charm but not quite as old-worldy as QC. Bigger town with more to do though.

* sigh *

I remember when Philadelphia had a bike race

https://www.theconstitutional.com/...cycling-championship

* sigh *

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"What's your claim?" - Ben Gravy
"Your best work is the work you're excited about" - Rick Rubin

I had a friend in it one year. We ran into Phil Ligget at Monks the night before and he mentioned our friend on the broadcast. Then during the race my friend made the first break, then each time he came by he was on a different bike, His bike, a neutral support bike, a team bike, and then his bike again. Needless to say he didn't go the full distance.

I think the one amateur road race I didn't finish was one where I got a Shimano neutral support bike.

The first 15 seconds, "I'm so pro, I got a neutral support bike."

The rest of the race: "FML."

Good article by Raul (see link) on the current status of the relegation battle. He ran a sort of neat Monte Carlo simulation to predict which of the bottom teams will end up being relegated.

I know there are complaints about how this has worked out, but I've never been interested in most of the races in out of the way venues in some of these places before. Now, I can't wait to see the results for the Giro della Toscana and Gooikse Pijl. Bring it on!

https://lanternerouge.com.au/2022/09/12/teams-lobby-the-uci-mas-liberates-movistar-israel-premier-tech-struggle-again-relegation-battle/

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"Human existence is based upon two pillars: Compassion and knowledge. Compassion without knowledge is ineffective; Knowledge without compassion is inhuman." Victor Weisskopf.

It's interesting that UAE scored the most Vuelta points overall, and the most in General Classification. Would not have guessed that. Though scoring 3rd and 5th in GC, two stage wins, it all adds up.

If TotalEngeries gets relegated = no Sagan on World Tour ... no wonder he's been racing MTBs lately?

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"What's your claim?" - Ben Gravy
"Your best work is the work you're excited about" - Rick Rubin

They'd probably still get invites to a bunch of World Tour races. Just not automatic invites to all of them.